My kind of town

Los Angeles will always be home for me and come January and February, we’re all reminded how good we have it out there, but summer time in Chicago is among the greatest places to be in the world. The weather is perfect, everyone is out and about and from what it seems, they have a real appreciation of the summer months because they know how brutal it is in the winter.

Yesterday was an incredible day because it was a holiday here and the city was in rare form, but obviously the results of the game were the highlight. That was all we could have asked of Esteban Loaiza and hopefully it will carry over to today.

We have added six people to the team – Nomar is activated off the DL and Erics Stults and Hull, Delwyn Young, Tony Abreu and Wilson Valdez were all recalled. Since Wrigley is the third oldest park in the country (I think), you can imagine how crowded the clubhouse is, but so it goes. I’m actually in the dugout right now, where Kim Ng will be hosting a live web chat in 45 minutes (at 2 p.m. PT).

It’s good to see Gonzo’s bat heating up at the right time. He has 4 HR’s in his career off of Trachsel, hopefully he can pop #5 tonight. Also, I really don’t like Steve Trachsel, he takes FOREVER between pitches. Really frustrating…

Then again Gonzo had great numbers off of Peavy too and….um, yeah. I don’t care who they throw out if they win, but it can’t help feel like we’re not giving ourselves the best chance. Anyways, we better beat up on Trashcan big time.

Let’s face it people, Grady is going to play Gonzo more than we’d like, so at least we’re getting a glimpse of next year with LaRoche in there as well and then Gonzo will be gone forever next year. If the Dodgers fail to make the playoffs, hopefully Grady will get the ax.

Besides with the lefty going tomorrow I’d be willing to bet that’s when we see Ethier and Kemp together. So, like jspelk said, just so long as they win. Besides look at the other spots in the lineup besides #5, that team can put up some runs, like they showed yesterday. It doesn’t fall on one person if the others do their job. If you’re in the lineup get the job done.

winning two games in a row… three games behind the wild card…Losing two of three to the pads over the weekend will not shut me up… I don’t mind seeing gonzo once a week maybe twice, but he plays three to four times a week and hits in front of Martin and Loney!!!

has anyone actually read the spin-job that is on the san diego website. LOL classic “two time 13 game winner” “threw a no-hitter in triple-A” Something tells me that Padre fans are not going to like this move.

Why are we worried about what Tomko can or cannot do for the Pads? Let’s worry about the Cubs and let the DBacks worry about the Padres. When we play the Padres again, then we’ll worry about Tomko pitching against us. I still believe that if the Pads help us out with the DBacks this week, we still control our own destiny because we have 6 big games left with the DBacks.

OK I understand why Gonzo played yesterday because it was his b’day, but its over now and we should be playing Ethier and Kemp exclusively. Gonzo is best suited as a left handed pinch hitter off the bench and nothing more. I think personally that Gonzo takes advantage of Grady’s ‘open door’ policy and goes in all the time to complain about playing time and Grady bies it.

Its shouldn’t be a moot point on Tomko. Not only did we pay him nearly 9 million dollars over two years which we are still on the hook for (so basically we’re paying Tomko while he pitches for SD), but he personally has contributed to over 11 losses this season, both as a starter and a BP guy. This was a huge waste (one of many) on Ned’s part.

Yep jspelk just another great move by Ned, I’ve said this before but I still feel like he’s in the process of ruining our franchise. Next time he will be trading away our good young players/prospects for guys like Bomko and Pierre.

lol…Man, what more can we say here? It’s too obvious to most humans that a .333 hitter should not be sitting yesterday especially after 3 hits previous. Go figure. Now it’s Andre’s turn so Gonzo can play back to back. Next year is next year so as Dodger fans we have to hope that old buzzard comes through and doesn’t pull a Pierre in LF.

Well put Scott. That was pretty much my exact question that I submitted to Kim in that lame chat. I just don’t get platooning Gonzo, Kemp and Ethier when it is abundantly clear Kemp and Ethier should be playing everyday.

Well let’s hope that Gonzo’s bat can get or stay hot enough to make up for his shortcomings in the outfield for the next 30 days. Gonzo is down to his last month as a Dodger, let’s root for him to swing a sweet bat because it doesn’t matter how much we complain, he’s gonna play down the stretch, so let’s go GONZO!!!

the happiest person rayt now is ryan!
ryan i know u wanted tomko to sign either to the pads or the dbacks! LOL

u’ve got ur wish!

let’s hope that tomko will do good!

we are still paying his salary so i think ned and tomko talk about it and got to an agreement that tomko if signed with the pads or the dbacks should still help us and try to pitch horrible for them! LOL

Is it me or is Juan Pierre the spring training version of Willie Mays Hayes from Major League? Every time he hits the ball in the air I want him to do push ups at home plate. In the words of Lou Brown, “You may run like Hayes, but you hit like S*IT?”

Chicago, Chicago, that wonderful town…I was there twice in ’05, Once to buy a ticket for a Dodger game and what a day I had, I love trains and I’m a mass transit nut. I rode those elevated lines all day, around the loop and everything, taking pictures and movies. Ofcourse I travel by Amtrak. It’s a lot like New York but not exactly. The ticket I bought was to Derek Lowe’s one-hitter. Like Fenway Park, Wrigley Field had the atmosphere of good old Ebbet’s Field, even the areas surrounding the parks. I’d like to continue that trip someday to Los Angeles. We really knocked them Cubs around yesterday, I hope there’s more of the same today. Most important I hope Penny forgets he’s in the 2nd half. We need a shiny Penny tonight. I haven’t seen Trachsel pitch since he was with the Mets. Let’s hope we get to him right away and KEEP THE PRESSURE ON.

Just wanted to let those who followed the thread from May about our our website (www.hauntedbaseball.com) that “Haunted Baseball” just arrived in stores. The book contains a whole chapter on the ghost stories of Dodger Stadium, including accounts from late night security on the phantom woman in high heels who walks the top deck. Other ballparks focused on in the book include Yankee Stadium (where Derek Jeter, A-Rod and many visiting players speak glowingly of the ghosts), Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Petco Park, Rogers Centre. There are also Spring Training sites, visiting team hotels and players’ homes. (Johnny Damon shares a fun story about being pinned by a ghost.)We interviewed over 800 current and former major leaguers for the book, as well as a few hundred stadium workers. The stories from Chavez Ravine are from their perspective. Hope you enjoy the book…

van, i gotta tell you, you’re one of my favorite bloggers, insightful, knowledgeable and always making solid fact based points, BUT…. Pierre over Furcal? Gotta disagree with you there my friend. Furcal will be healthy again next year, and although he won’t steal the bases that Pierre steals, he will have a better OBP and a better Avg and he’ll be back to his 15 to 20 HR’s..

I really don’t get the Pierre bashing right now, he has been one of the more productive Dodgers in the second half. The source of our problems right now is that we had no back-end of the rotation (hopefully Loaiza and Stults help there) and the inconsistent playing time for Kemp and Ethier (Gonzo’s fault not Pierre’s).

scott, i agree 100%. JP is a terrible fielder. Besides not having an arm, he turns every fly into an adventure. He has been getting base and stealing bases and i guess ultimately that’s why they signed him, but he is just not worth the 9 mil he’s getting and i will never be convinced that it was a good signing!!!

OK scott and Kemp hasn’t made mistakes on the basepaths and kent doesn’t have extremely limited range and nobody else makes mistakes do they? If you’re going to pinpoint bashing him on one play, why not bash loney for ending the 1st game in the series by popping out or why not blame DLowe for giving up 5 runs in the 2nd game we lost. I hope you’re seeing where I’m going with this.

if ned values his job, he will find a way to entice A-Rod. Therefore we will either have to give up LaRoche, or Furcal to make room for him on the infield, unless the NL for some unknown reason adopts a DH rule :P. Given the two options, I would rather send Raffy away and go with the youth.

Furcal was the Dodger MVP last year…he’s a gamer that plays dinged and doesn’t complain, and he’s still only 29. What in the world has LaRoche ever done to pick him over Furcal????? Moot point, though, because A-Rod will be no Dodger.

At least Kemp is getting on base to get thrown out later and knocking guys in while he’s at it. What’s worse? Getting thrown out at 3b after driving in 2 runs with a double or just making an out from the batter’s box right away?

Pierre isn’t worth 9 mil, but it’s not his fault he signed. I have nothing against him personally, he’s doing the best he can. It’s just that everyone in the world besides Colletti ( and maybe you charris) knew signing him for that kind of money was a mistake.

Their is no question that JP is overpaid, its just makes no sense to bash him right now. Like it makes no sense to say that Gonzo is a better option than Ethier based on what they’ve done the past 10 days. Look at JPs splits and you’ll see that he has had a productive second half with or without that error in SD. To bash him right now is just like bashing DLowe or Kemp or Loney everytime they make a mistake. JP has a squirt gun arm, no power, and makes the occasional miscue in the OF but overall he has done well in the 2nd half.

I like the looks of tonights lineup. After yesterdays sound spanking of the Cubs, and the way in which it was done should be a HUGE morale boost for the ball club. Let’s hope we can keep it going.
GO DODGERS!!!!!

who cares about trying to salvage Coletti’s record? I dont quite understand why there are so many people on here who refuse to believe and wont even consider the possibility of A-Rod being a dodger next year. realistically he has a 1 in 31 chance of being a dodger. But with the teams that can actually afford him, it moves the dodgers up to better chances. Gotta agree with Van, LaRoche has amazing plate discipline, along with Loney and a few other youngsters.

To all the Pierre bashers out there. Even though his fielding, and throwing ability, or lack there of, don’t forget he does have post season experience, and does have a World Series ring. With Nomar coming off ther DL, and the call ups, I like the potential of what could be. If we get an early lead, put Young in CF to boost the defense, and see how he does at the plate. Abreu did well earlier with the club, then he got hurt, and went back down. He’s a better all around utility infielder than Martinez- no question.

well here is the the thing Charris…to really compare Pierre take a look at a few other “table setter” type players in 48 game since the all star break.

Ichirio -37 runs, 19rbi=56

Granderson -42 runs, 24rbi=66

Sizemore -30 runs, 24rbi=54

rollins -48 runs, 26rbi=74

Ramirez -36 runs, 32rbi=68

Reyes -42 runs, 14rbi=56

Furcal -34 runs, 14rbi=48

Pierre -28 runs, 13rbi=41

and this with him being about as good as he can be as you say. I am not really blaming him, but he needs to be out of the top of our order. For all his speed, hits etc, it needs to translate to runs created and it dosen’t.

He was part of that 4 for 88 as well. But yeah I don’t want to go there with Pierre he has been doing well for him.. I am just saying that he does not generate the runs needed to have a consistent offense, even when doing well. He is fine in the 8 hole.

If you want Pierre getting even more at bats your crazy. I don’t think you you can win with a player who will hit for no power (gap power or HR) while getting most of your teams plate apperances maybe in 1970. Not now.

jungar, don’t get me wrong, I’m not on the Pierre loving band wagon but certainly his lack of run production in the second half (we all know that he is null of power so he can’t produce runs on his own) has something to do with the Dodgers having an inconsistent line-up.

In comparison (2nd half):

Furcal: 77 Hits/BB .353 OBA

Pierre: 70 Hits/BB .348 OBA

Both of those #s are acceptable to me, and yes I still think the Pierre signing was terrible but it seems that people aren’t driving him in so the run production may be a bit of an abberition (or the 3-4-5 guys fault for not cashing him in). I just don’t know why people were coming down so hard on him specifically today.

fezzik031 – I certainly am one who doesn’t want A-Rod brought on board. His huge contract, long term, limits the selection of other players. He simply ties up too many dollars and restricts roster flexibility. He is getting older and will become more prone to injury towards the end of his contract. He is a distraction, a wonderfully skilled player, but a distraction. A-Rod has not been either the missing piece or the player to build a franchise around in Seattle, Texas or NY. How many WS rings does he have? How are his post season stats? We are better off with the kids and giving LaRoche a shot. Takes time but worth it.

Well really you hit the nail on the head. We simply can’t have both of them at the top of the order in 2008…I think Furcal is a great player having an off year (better defender, has power) and I think Pierre is a bad player having a typical year.

I know we all expect Kemp to become a great hitter, but I got to ask what kind of an idiot this guy is that he can’t help making outs on the bases. Absolutely sickening. I think if I was his manager, I’d pull him from the lineup right on the spot after this many goof-ups. Kemp is an IDIOT.

definitely agreed there jungar, me personally I would rather have Pierre leading off and Furcal hitting down in the order. Pierre can steal bases and Furcal is more apt to drive them in. Furcal 7th, Loney 2nd???

Kemp will become more adept at reading pitchers, situations. Remember why the Dodgers didn’t sign Valdi when he was a younster and signed Wilton instead? The knock on Valdi was he runs the bases poorly. Don’t hear much about that now. GO KEMP!! GO DODGERS!!

The Dodgers must be the worst basrunning team in the league. # runners throw out in two innings? 1rst rule in Little league on a line drive is freeze to make sure it goes through, not keep running towards the next base

Base running blunders are mostly caused by Cranial Rectal Inversion this season, especially Kemp. I hope they get their heads in the game going down the stretch, or it could prove costly trying to make a playoff bid.

The Cards were far from a dominant team last year. The end of regular season record was far from impressive. They just got hot at the right time, and the pitching staff stepped up. the whole NL central is mediocre at best.

erikooms: Let’s not miss a chance to spout theories that criticize Grady. In fact, La Roche made 9 E’s in 73 games at LV and 3 E’s in 17 games with the Dodgers so maybe Grady took him out not because of that particular error he made tonight but as a general precaution. Of course, if Grady left him in and he made a second error tonight some other overly critical jerk would have complained about that.

I am of the thought that it is better for him to learn on the job. We had a decent lead when he was pulled.. And if that was the reason why not pull him after the error. Why let him bat again and get a RBI and score a run.

rwbjr0: I am a Grady fan as well as a big fan and defender of Kemp. I don’t see any contradiction. LH hitters needed to start against Zambrano last night;RH hitters needed (but less strongly) to start tonight.Grady is awake -you are too blinded by some sort of prejudice to see that he is.

Also, if Arizona hangs on and beats S.D tonight we’ll be three games back in the Wild Card and division. If we win tomorrow we will be only TWO games back in the Wild Card regardless of what happens tomorrow with S.D/AZ.

dodgerdude17: If you looked at Zambrano’s splits and didn’t see how terrible he has pitched this year against LH hitters in every aspect of pitching then there is nothing I can say. Against Zambrano this year Gonzalez was (is still) a better option than Kemp.

rwbjr0: You haven’t looked a Zambrano’s splits. You have not shown me that you have any familiarity with baseball stats. All I’ve seen is sarcastic comments about Little based on your uninformed theories about why he makes certain decisions.
Please refrain from using capitals with me in the future.

Tommorrows game will be the hardest to win since we have a so-so guy going against (right now) the Cubs best. If we take tommorrow we can definitely sweep. It’d be nice to clear up all these baserunning problems though!

Kemp is such a fascinating young talent with so much raw ability. Some of you need to quit your whining; the kid is growing up as a baseball player on the big stage, so he’s bound to make mistakes. It’s not like he’s Juan Pierre, who makes a ton of money and brings little to the table other than speed. Kemp is the total package.

Mike – its just not worth arguing with sombody who puts old stats before performance on the field..
Kemp is a better hitter both left & right handed.. He is a much better fielder – Gonzo is a joke in the field… Kemp is much faster & can steal bases…. There is simply no comparison between the two players right now…

If you think that I have been making uninformed comments about Grady — then again I say; YOU HAVE BEEN SLEEPING DURING THE GAMES THE LAST FEW MONTHS….

hey what’d you know…we win 2 games in a row with gonzo in the lineup….judging from the comments before the games actually start, you would think the Dodgers were tanking the games or conceding defeat by putting Gonzo in. (same thing with having the woeful, and worst CF in history, pierre)

I guess grady lucked out with these past 2 wins. Afterall, when we lose a game, it’s grady’s “fault” because his lineups are cursed since it doesn’t give us the “best chance to win”??

Just curious, what happens when we do win with the lineup Grady puts out there? Judging from the comments after our most recent wins, most of the hate gets swept under the rug until our next loss, then all **** breaks lose and grady is the worst manager in the history of MLB again.

Kemp is such a fascinating young talent with so much raw ability. Some of you need to quit your whining; the kid is growing up as a baseball player on the big stage, so he’s bound to make mistakes. It’s not like he’s Juan Pierre, who makes a ton of money and brings little to the table other than speed. Kemp is the total package.

i don’t care how much money you make out on the field, an error/bad play/mistake is just that no matter who you are.

If Babe Ruth was out there in his prime making a mistake, he should be called out on it by any fan who wished to do so.

Personally, i watch and follow the Dodgers, not an individual player out on the field, and no one gets a pass for mistakes.

So far, Kemp’s mistakes are no different than any mistakes made by more established big leaguers, and his offense/defense more than makes up for his miscues (including the baserunning mistakes which seem to become more prevalent lately).

However, that doesn’t mean that his mistakes should be swept under the rug when they do happen. I understand that he’s young and is learning on the go, but if other players on the team don’t get a pass for their errors/defensive shortcomings or failure to get clutch hits or have good at-bats, Kemp shouldn’t either.

Too bad we took that slide last month right now we would have been sitting pretty but the Dodgers are streaky, Like someone said a Jeckle & Hyde team. We’ve gotten good pitching the last 3 games from Billingsley, Loiaza & Penny each pitching 7 innings and resting our bull pen. This team comes back from a loss as good as any team. We have good resiliency. It’s getting to look more and more like last year. I know we played like we didn’t belong in the post season. But the more you play in it the better you get.

We’ve been playing well lately and our starting pitching has been solid. We need to continue this little run we have going and win as many games as possible. Somehow, after all we’ve gone through this season, it’s quite possible for us to get into the postseason. Let’s hope we get it done! :)

“He has always had good stuff. He pitched well for us here a few years back,” San Diego general manager Kevin Towers said. “He’s a very good arm, a guy who’ll be in the mix when we go back to a fifth starter. He’s a strike-thrower, a guy who will pound the strike zone.”
Guess who we’re talking about here – Bombko.

He says we messed around with his mechanics, and that was the problem, which he now has straightened out in a few at home bullpen sessions. I guess we’ll see.

at the risk of being nailed to the cross as a pessimist, if we want any chance at winning a game in the playoffs, then we had better win the division. October is a whole new seasons and it is EXTREMELY difficult to carry momentum over from the regular season into october. You want proof, compare the Cardinals september record last year and the Dodgers. Dodgers were red hot in september of last year and got swept in the first round. St. Louis almost backed themselves out of the playoffs and won the WS. So a september streak is not indicative of October success.

Here are the divisional playoffs given the following circumstances:

1. Dodgers win Wild Card

Dodgers vs. Mets

Arizona/San Diego vs. Central Winnner

2. Dodgers win Division – West team winning Wild Card

Dodgers vs. Central winner

Mets vs D-Backs/Padres

3. Dodgers win Division – Central win Wild card

Dodgers vs Central Division

Mets vs Wild Card

4. Dodgers win division – East team wins Wild card

Dodgers vs Wild Card

Mets vs Central

Given all the scenarios, I think option number 1 is the least favorable. Beyond the first round is going to be a whole new story. If the Dodgers can get through the first round with some momentum, then the sky is the limit. But IMHO winning the west is going to be the key to giving LA fans anything to cheer about in October.

Tonight is the key game in this series. If Stults can give us a decent start, and I would call that six innings with no more than three runs surrendered, we should take the game and very possibly get the sweep with Lowe going tomorrow. Then I think we would stand a decent chance of still making the playoffs.

Charris, the mets ending up with the best record would only affect scenario #3 due to the fact that divisional playoffs cannot be played between a wild card team and the division winner of the same division.

It is still possible for us to win the division and the wild card to come out of the east or central. In the end it doesn’t matter who we end up playing, there is no easy road to the world series so if we have to take on the mets in the NLDS it doesn’t matter, you have to beat the best to be the best.

You can’t assume anything in the game of baseball. What if the Mets don’t even make the playoffs? We just need to go out and win every series and get into the postseason. Then you can worry about who you have to play.

What a bunch of BABIES on this forum! Do you guys have the most depressing lives of anyone in history or what? Is this how you go through your daily lives, being negative and annoying and criticizing every single motion and movement of your day? My God. The Dodgers are playing good ball of late and all I hear are complaints! And by the way, this is my first post and my last. I come here to read what Josh says (by the way, THANK YOU Josh so much for keeping us “in the know”), but I ignore the other 95% of you jokers who think baseball is as easy as putting together a fantasy team. LOL it’s fricking hilarious. Get a life and try to enjoy the winning streak while we have one. Who knows what this team will do, but if I know anything, it’s that if you make it to the playoffs anything can happen — even St. Louis winning last year.

How can you come on here and call us a “bunch of babies” because of the complaining we’re doing? The way I see it is that if you call us babies for complaining then I guess that makes you a baby too for complaining about us. If you don’t like what we say then so be it but to call somebody something when you don’t even know us is wrong. If you don’t want to talk about the Dodgers, good or bad, then just keep your comments to yourself. Nobody called you out so don’t try and call us out.

I’m really not dreaming about the post season yet, or building scenarios in my head. That’s putting the cart waaaaay before the horse.

The Dodgers haven’t shown that they can beat playoff-caliber teams – Padres and Mets, most noticeably. We did sweep the Mets at home earlier this year when they were decimated by injuries, but got a wallop when they were stronger more recently.

If the talented young position players can play, and play to potential, and if the pitching holds up, we may be able to get into the post season. ( three back isn’t the easiest hill to climb, no matter how much blue you bleed ) It is way too early to worry about what other teams are doing. We need to worry about what we are doing – and what we should be doing is winning series. That series loss against the Padres pretty much has to be the last one of the season, or we’ll be stalled in also-ran land. Of course, even such a statement assumes a lot, and never assume in baseball! If we sweep the Padres and/or the Snakes ( rather big if! ) we could probably afford to drop a series elsewhere.

Bottom line – I don’t look further than the game of the day. Today Stults is starting, and we need a quality start from him, and a slick effort from the position players. I hope to not see the Dodgers run themselves out of opportunities on the paths. Against a weakish NL Central team, you can get away with that. Against a stronger team, like the Padres for instance, doing that is much more likely to hang you with the ‘L’.

Either way, heads up and go Blue.

I hope the lineup continue to feature strong young players. That’s our best chance.

Well said griffon64. We have to win almost every series and not worry about everybody else. If we keep playing like we’re playing, the D-backs keep coming back to earth and Young struggling for SD then well be there at the end. But if we get caught up in watching the scoreboard then we’re done.

slikkrikk-
Nobody is MAKING you read this blog. If you like to read what Josh has to say then thats fine. If you don’t like to read what we have to say thats fine also. But don’t come in here and start calling us a ‘bunch of babbies’ just cuz we second guess management and care about the team. You are calling out every single person on this blog when we have done nothing to you. If you think we are too negative then just read a different dodger blog. Please don’t make another post like that one again.

I guess the only way the Dodgers can guarantee a playoff spot is by winning every game left on the schedule…LOL!! Well, let’s assume that’s not going to happen then how about they take care of business against the Padres and DBacks. The scoreboard watching right now is of no great significance with the Pads and Dbacks trading wins and losses. The Dodgers are in a real good position though if they can beat the Pads (3 games next week) and the DBacks (6 games left) I really believe that they still control their own destiny. Now if someone can beat Philadelphia it would make our lives easier….

I want to comment on Matt Kemp and the baserunning “mistakes” that he and the team have been making. First of all, Kemp is like anyone else, and you should feel free to call him out for mistakes. But, by the same token, do we really get on Penny when he has one bad outing? No, because he’s our best pitcher and comes through. Same with Kemp. Yesterday, he had one baserunning mistake, but four hits (including an easy triple), and the one at-bat where he did not get a hit he go on board on an error. And that error on was a forced error. Kemp crushed that ball at Aramis Ramirez. Yes, a big leaguer should make that play, but that’s the type of hitting that makes the other team make mistakes.

The other thing is this–Kemp’s baserunning “mistakes” are him being aggressive. Frankly, that’s a welcome change. This team has way too many station-to-station runners. That works fine in some lineups. If your the Cardinals, and you go station to station and wait for Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, and now Ankiel to deliver the big hit, that’s OK. But we don’t have guys who are going to do that, so we have to take the extra base.

In fact, I liked seeing that, even when it did not work–Pierre and Kent both getting thrown out at home were mistakes of agression, but at least we were trying to do more rather than less. Two of Kemp’s base-running “mistakes” were running through a stop-sign at third, and with his speed, you really wonder why Donnelly is throwing up the stop sign.

Now, a few words about Kemp’s “mistakes”–they’re not that bad. Yesterday, he was picked off at first. That’s a bad read on the pitcher. But you need training and good coaching to learn to read pitchers, espescially ones you’ve never seen. He got doubled up on Kent’s fly ball the other day. That’s because he was straight-stealing second base on the first pitch. Kemp has the type of speed that he should be a 30-30 threat (or a 40-40 threat, or 50-50). So that’s going to happen to anyone–it’s just bad luck that Kent was first pitch swinging and hit a room service flyball.

But there is a pattern here that’s forming, and it’s that we do not seem to have very good base-running coaching or third-base coaching. I would think Mariano Duncan would be OK at this, because he was a pretty decent baserunner in his day (as best as I can remember). Donnelly is a real question mark. I saw the fiasco in Game 1 of the NLDS last October in person, and even the Mets fans felt sorry for me. No one understood what happened, and Donnelly even admitted that he sent the lead runner (Kent) when he knew he would be out because Drew was coming around so hard, but then he did not even put a sign up for Drew. Yesterday, it made some sense for Pierre to go home on Kemp’s single (Pierre’s speed is good), but Pierre was out by a surprising distance again (I blame Matt Kemp–he hits the ball so hard it gets to the fielder too quickly). But sending Jeff Kent, a pretty slow runner, on a short fly ball to Soriano is certifiable. One of the “mistakes” that Kemp made was on Kent’s fly ball to right, but on the replay, you can see Kemp look toward third base. I don’t know if he saw anything, but from the angle, it did not look like Donnelly was in a position to be seen by Kemp.

The upshot is that we seem to have a lot of mistakes, coupled with a general lack of aggressive baserunning. Kemp makes mistakes–more than he should, and perhaps more than others do, but there is a team-wide problem. Hitting is tough to get right. Pitching mechanics are tough to get right. No matter how good a coach is, the players have to come through. But baserunning is one of those eminently coachable areas, and I don’t think it’s getting done right. It’s hard to change this late in the year, but we need a more aggressive baserunning approach (like the Angels have), and probably a new third base coach to implement it. This is a non-Grady comment, but part of the Diamondbacks success this year has to be credited to the fact that Bob Melvin turned over baserunning to his bench coach, Kirk Gibson. Any fan will remember Gibson scoring from second on a “walk-off” wild pitch in the summer of ’88 (against the Expos, I think), and that’s just one sign of Gibson having been one of the most aggressive and smartest baserunners of his time. We need more of that, and better teaching for young guys like Kemp.

A final note on Kemp. Gonzo went half-way on the should-be basehit flyball that Martin hit. He got decoyed a little, but it was a no-mans land play, and he did it basically as best he could. Credit to him. But he got thrown out. Matt Kemp would never have been thrown out on that play, because he has such great speed. So the point is Kemp is often successful in spite of his mistakes, while others are unsuccessful in spite of playing it correctly. Give me the player you can teach and let him learn, because once he does he’ll be unstoppable.

The guy who scares me the most when he slides is Russell Martin. I have seen him slide a number of times this season and I hold my breath until I am sure he did not hurt himself. He seems to be a smart baserunner but his sliding technique is an injury waiting to happen.

gonzo is old and slow that’s why he got thrown out. Ethier makes it easy. Also they keep running on gonzo that needs to stop its taking away the force playand its been hurting us most of the time. Other than that I love the post lee!our third base coach is the Worst.

Same old Little I don’t care what people say Hillebrand should not be hitting in front of Loney!!!!! Why is he even playng?

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